Prior to the testing of a product in a product integration environment, test data must be loaded into the database. Typically, the process for loading test data is a manual one that includes receiving one or more seed data files in standard format, and loading them individually into a database using an Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) tool. As each file is successfully loaded into the database, a success notification is received and the file is updated with the newly assigned record identifiers. The record identifiers must then be manually associated with each subsequent, related seed data file.
For example, if the seed data is associated with a contact management application, the data may include a list of companies and a list of employees associated with each company. Before the employee files can be uploaded to the database, the appropriate company file must be first loaded. After a record identification number is assigned to each company record in the company file, the record identification number must be manually copied and pasted into each employee record within the employee file. Then each employee file is individually loaded into the database. Because the loading of the seed data requires a user to manually update and load each seed data file, the loading of the seed data is a labor intensive and error prone process.